Celebrities Who Should Have Never Played Teenagers

Posted by Brent Furdyk on April 15, 2020

It's a longstanding Hollywood tradition that actors who play teenagers in film and TV are often far older than the youngsters they're playing, and sometimes that age discrepancy is downright ridiculous. From a Beverly Hills, 90210 star who was pushing 40 when the teen drama left the air to a middle-age actor attempting to convince incredulous viewers he was 18, check out some actors and actresses who were considerably older than the high school characters they portrayed.

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Stockard Channing in 'Grease'

When she was cast as Pink Ladies leader Betty Rizzo in 1978's Grease, 33-year-old actress Stockard Channing was a looong way from high school. The oldest member of the "teenage" cast, Channing was followed by Olivia Newton-John (who played Sandy, and turned 29 during filming) and Jeff Conaway (a.k.a. Kenickie), who was 26. John Travolta was a comparatively youthful 23.

Ashleigh Murray in 'Riverdale'

Ashleigh Murray is Riverdale High student Josie McCoy, who's also the lead singer of Josie and the Pussycats. When cast in the role, Murray was 29. By the show's fourth season, Josie was still in high school, while the actress who plays her was well into her 30s.

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Gabrielle Carteris in 'Beverly Hills, 90210'

When she was cast as 16-year-old Andrea Zuckerman, Gabrielle Carteris was 29, making her the oldest member of the Beverly Hills, 90210 cast — a whopping 13 years older than her character. When the show went off the air, Carteris was 39.

Henry Winkler in 'Happy Days'

Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli was one of the most beloved TV characters of the 1970s. Star Henry Winkler was 29 years old when he was cast as the leather-clad teenager. When "Happy Days" aired its final episode in 1984, Winkler was just a month shy of his 40th birthday.

Bianca Lawson in 'Pretty Little Liars'

When Bianca Lawson took the role of 17-year-old Maya St. Germain on Pretty Little Liars in 2010, the actress was 31. Interestingly enough, one of her earliest roles was playing a teenager in 1995's Saved By the Bell: The New Class, which she followed by teenage roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek and, in 2012, Teen Wolf. As a result, Lawson has played a teenager for far longer than she actually was one — talk about extended adolescence!

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Meredith Monroe in 'Dawson's Creek'

Dawson's Creek's Andie McPhee was just 14 when she was introduced to the teen drama in its second season. The actress who played the character, Meredith Monroe, was 29 years old when she began playing the role — meaning the age difference between the actor and her character was, at 15 years, greater than the age of her character.

Stacey Dash in 'Clueless'

While Alicia Silverstone was just 17 when she played 16-year-old Cher Horowitz in 1995 comedy Clueless, actress Stacey Dash, playing Cher's best friend Dionne, was 28 — more than a decade older than her co-star.

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Tobey Maguire in 'Spider-Man'

As any comic book nerd knows, Peter Parker was a teenager when he receives arachnid-like superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider during a high school field trip. In real life, actor Tobey Maguire was 27 when he starred in 2002's Spider-Man. When Andrew Garfield took on the role 10 years later, he was likewise 27. That trend mercifully halted when Tom Holland was cast as Spidey at age 19 in 2015, becoming the youngest actor to ever play the web-slinger.

Shirley Henderson in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'

First seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Moaning Myrtle is the ghost of a former student who haunts a toilet in the girls' bathroom at Hogwarts. When she was cast in the role, actress Shirley Henderson was 36 years old.

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Matt Damon in 'Behind The Candelabra'

When it comes to being too old for a role, it's tough to beat Matt Damon in HBO movie Behind the Candelabra. As Scott Thorsen, young lover of Liberace (played by Michael Douglas), Damon's character was just 18 when he first met the flamboyant pianist. Damon was 41, which, to be fair, required a more than a little suspension of disbelief.